Introduction and Women's Health Care

March 12, 2012

Hey everyone!
This is my first blog post and I’m excited to make the most of it with an introduction and jumpstart to Oxy Election Central, a collection of students passionate about politics and national issues who will be blogging regularly from now till election time.
My name is Utsav Patwardhan and I’m a Junior Biochemistry major from Los Altos, CA. I think I have an interesting perspective on things due to my unique background: as a first generation American, I grew up in the Bay Area but moved to India during 8th grade where I lived for 6 years before returning Stateside for college. Like most students here at Oxy, I’m pretty liberal. However, I’m proud to say that I’m tempered in my views as a social liberal, financial moderate, but foreign policy ‘center-rightist.’
I’m not sure where I want to take this blog, but as election season goes by I aim to follow and talk about what’s happening week by week and offer Oxy students my take on what’s going on. I like to follow the news, almost obsessively actually, and I’m all set with desktop RSS feeds from my two favorite newspapers, the New York Times and The Hindu (by far, the best English daily paper in India).
For my first post, I think it’s most important that I do a wrap up. We’re now seeing the aftermath of a rough 2 weeks for the birth control and women’s health debate. The Obama Administration announced a new policy requiring all organizations, religion-affiliated or not, to provide mandatory birth control coverage. Following the controversy, they announced an adjustment: religious organizations would only have to provide it through their insurance, not directly. Amid the protests and debates, the GOP held hearings on the issue. What was most interesting about the debate was not the hearings themselves, but rather the "panel of experts". The lack of any women representation in a hearing about birth controland women’s health was astounding. I mean, take a look at the famous picture that made the rounds. That’s not to say that women didn’t want to participate, no. Actually the GOP turned away those that wished to take part, including Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student that later became famous (see later in the post). Any criticism that women’s groups directed at the GOP for their panel was diverted by the assertion that the panels were about religious liberty, not women’s health, a convenient overlooking of the fact that the religious liberty being investigated was whether or not the religious organizations should have to provide birth control through insurance.
The Democrats later held their own informal panel on the issue, this time including Sandra Fluke, who testified about the expense for birth control (she stated that some of her friends have to pay as much as $1000 for birth control every year). She also talked about a friend who lost an ovary due to a painful condition; her friend couldn’t afford the birth control to alleviate the symptoms. All seemed fine and dandy until syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh jumped in. And that’s when things became nasty. In a series of radio comments over a span of Wednesday through Friday, he successively called Ms. Fluke a slut and a prostitute, and then followed up by saying that she shouldn’t expect the taxpayer to pay for her “having so much sex she can't afford her own birth control pills.” Over the next few days, he went even farther and at one point suggested that if she and the rest of the other ‘feminazis’ wanted to have tax payers pay for all the sex, they might as well post videos so everyone can watch.
There was an outpouring of support for Ms. Fluke, with women’s groups, the Democratic National Committee, the President of Georgetown, and even President Obama jumping in the fray. Due to wide spread public anger, the Rush Limbaugh Show lost over 40 sponsors. However, that’s only a miniscule number compared to the thousands that he has on various radio stations throughout the country. He eventually issued a rare apology. Sounds like a sorrybutnotsorry apology to me.
Do you think this was rock bottom? Think again. The saddest part about this issue is that it’s not only bigoted men making these statements, but also women too! On Fox News recently, Sandy Rios of the Family PAC Federal said “Now we’re going to cover birth control, breast pumps, counseling for abuse… are we going to do pedicures and manicures as well? I think that would be a good idea.” Wow… just wow.
This is not about the amount of sex that someone has, providing a luxury for women, or opinions religious organizations have. It’s about the liberty that a women has to make the decision about what sort of health and medication she needs for her own body, whatever the reason. With all the hue and cry that conservatives make for liberty and personal freedom, it is so hypocritical that they seem to advocate leaving a woman’s health care choices to her priest and doctor. Absurd. Good way to deal with it? Stick it where it hurts, like this. Many initiative bills such as those requiring a rectal/colon exam, psychological screenings, or other procedures before providing erectile dysfunction medication, that is frequently covered by insurance, have surfaced in recent days.
With all the debate over Rush Limbaugh’s comments, one has to examine both sides of the same coin. President Obama received a lot of flak for accepting a $1,000,000 donation from misogynist comedian Bill Maher. Known for his pretty offensive and cringe-worthy remarks on Sarah Palin during the 2008 campaign, it seems like a double standard for him to get away with it. Here’s a pretty critical video which hits the point home. Why should anyone, Democrat or Republican, get away with this sort of language? And is there an apparent double standard? They both are repeat offenders, in particular Rush, who has a history of nasty comments. Among my personal favorite Rush gems on this subject: 1. “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society”. 2. “The babes... like the sexual harassment crowd!” But both have had a history of this behavior, why is this ok in the media? Obama took the money, despite coming out strongly in favor of civil discourse and respect for women. If he's going to talk the talk, he has to be balanced by returning it and denouncing the vitriolic language from both sides of the aisle.
Hate this? Love this? Did I get something wrong? Think I'm an idiot? I want to hear what you think.
Comment below or email me at patwardhan@oxy.edu